Jen's Weekend Drafts: Make More Tracks Than Necessary.

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+SUPPORT FOR LA: All our love to California this week; like everyone else, I’m in disbelief at the devastation. I can’t process what I’m seeing; I can’t imagine how residents must feel. I checked in with one of our Magpie Angelenos and she wrote: “There’s a specific trauma in watching your hometown burn and not knowing when it’ll be over. Aside from donations (clothes, supplies, support to our fire foundation), the emotional support and holding space are of great comfort. Sometimes, we just need to know that others are collectively rallying around us, I think. Add that to the list of kindnesses from strangers?” Holding a space for her and anyone else in this community impacted by the fires. My sister works for Doen, headquarted in LA, and has said many of her colleagues have lost their homes and are still in a situation of deep unknown.

Please send me an email or leave a comment if there is something we as a Magpie community can do to help any Magpies impacted. There are lots of resources online on how to support, so not sure how helpful or redundant this is, but my family and I contributed this week to World Central Kitchen, Baby2Baby, and a restaurant called Le Great Outdoor, which is delivering meals 2x a day to firefighters.

+BE LIKE THE FOX: Thanks to Magpie reader Jessica for sharing a Wendell Berry poem in response to my post about the fox as my personal avatar for the 2025 year! I was completely charmed by the poem, but especially its concluding couplets:

Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

Oddly prescient, as I was just looking out the window this morning, noticing the fox tracks through the snow. At one part directly below my studio, it appeared as though they’d run in circles with one another. “More tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction” — yes! Whether drawn by curiosity, play, or perhaps just error, I was charmed by their wayward paw prints. I was reminded in turn of an Anais Nin quote: “In life, you will make mistakes. And those, too, are correct.” I was also reminded of a fabulous snippet of an interview with Elizabeth Gilbert in which she asserts that in any creative life, one must “routinely choose the path of curiosity over the path of fear. Not like twice or three times or four times, but daily.” This is likely true of any life artfully lived, not just the life of a practicing artist, by the way. Whether you’re contemplating a big life change, confronting a difficult problem, even just reading a book that challenges you — the creative spirit will lean forward with curiosity versus shrinking back in apprehension. It will ask questions; it will meet the text or the problem or the person where it is; it will say “well let me take a look.” Of course the admonition also had fine-fingered resonance with my experience of writing: be weird in your expression; let the language loose; reach for specificity.

+MY SON’S FOX DRAWING: We are just a den of fox lovers over here. My son painted this watercolor of Frederick this past week and I’m going to have it framed:

+MORE ON THE IMPERFECT NOW: The theme of this week was: meet yourself where you are. I wrote about this vis a vis the concept of fractionality earlier this week, and then I begrudgingly went downstairs that same day and my Peloton instructor said: “Be proud of the version of you that showed up to this ride.” I had been feeling unsatisfied with my fitness — getting back into the swing of things post-holiday, at the age of 40, has been neither easy in undertaking or fleet-footed in progress. I feel slow, cumbersome, creaky in new and jarring ways. And yet here was this stranger telling me: “The current version of you is just fine. She’s here, and she’s trying.” Later that day, I came across this quote by Anne Lamott:

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you. Stop. Rest. Breathe. Start again. Each day is a reset, a clean slate, and a chance to meet yourself exactly where you are. You don’t need to fix everything today. Some things will untangle themselves when you stop pulling so hard.”

I was struck by the language around “not fixing everything today.” I mean, maybe we don’t need to “fix” anything tomorrow, either, you know? Maybe the current model is doing exactly what it should be doing. Food for thought!

+BESTSELLERS: So many of you bought my favorite swimsuit this week — just in time for winter getaways! You will love it. Flattering, comfortable, sexy, fun. Run — nearly sold out! A lot of you also bought my favorite Clemence necklace. I wear this in the 16″ length daily with my heart ID necklace. It’s my signature stack!

01. FOLLOW SUIT SWIMSUIT // 02. DORSEY CLEMENCE NECKLACE // 03. MY FAVORITE JEANS (RUN TTS) // 04. ANN MASHBURN DRESS (ON SALE!) // 05. BEST WINTER LIP PRODUCT // 06. MOTHER SCIENCE SKIN BARRIER REPAIR MOISTURIZER (OBSESSED) // 07. VARLEY HALF-ZIP (STILL ON SALE) // 08. J. CREW NORDIC BOOTS // 09. BEST VITAMIN C PRODUCT UNDER $30 // 10. NIACINAMIDE EXFOLIATING PADS (FOR SKIN BRIGHTNESS! I AM LOVING THESE) // 11. J. CREW SHERPA HALF-ZIP // 12. AYR EARLY MORNINGS TEE

+ONE HOUR UNTIL YOUR FRENCH IN-LAWS ARRIVE: I found this video by creator Ainsley Du Rose absolutely charming. A reminder it doesn’t need to be an elaborate, complex meal with lobster and homemade, hand-rolled pasta for it to be elegant and delicious and in its own way impressive! Bread, raclette, a simple dessert! I’m into this! Kelly (of Kelly Stop Worrying), I was thinking of you while watching this! P.S. Easy, elegant happy hour snack ideas.

+ON MY RADAR: Just restocked the greatest concealer of all time, Cle de Peau. I use the ivory shade. It is $$ but the absolute best. I use it as a “top coat” to completely conceal any final bumps/rednesses after applying less expensive concealer/foundation. This and a few other items on my radar…

FRANK + EILEEN EFFIE CAPELET (LIVED IN THIS ALL WEEK) // CLE DE PEAU CONCEALER // DESIGNER BUY I’M EYEING // TRIARCHY JEANS // LE MONDE BERYL LOOK FOR LESS // SOEUR SHERPA VEST // NEW MERIT FLUSH BALM COLORS (I ORDERED SHADES BONBON AND POSTMODERN)

+DESIGNER SALE: I’ve never shopped at Luisa Via Roma before but my head has been officially turned as they are offering a private 40% off a selection of high end designers with code LVR40. The sale includes high-end ski brands like Bogner and Goldbergh, which almost never go on sale — invest in a top of the line ski jacket or long-line puffer. The sale also includes fabulous cashmere pieces from Guest in Residence (Gigi Hadid’s brand) for peak, luxe winter hygge: consider these cashmere track pants or this quilted cashmere jacket, paired with some shearling-lined winter boots from Aquazzura or Bogner or layered with this sherpa vest from Soeur.